It’s not every day that a fashion show leaves you hungry for more, particularly when it comes to organic ingredients of the most delectable kind. This how I felt after the exquisite Eko-Laborative exhibition during NY Fashion Week. The designs were so rich and provocative, I was convinced that I had chanced upon a whole new cornucopia of eco-chic style. Staged as a fashion-forward collaboration between Ekovaruhuset’s ‘House of Organic’ and the new design collective, Eko-Lab, Eko-Laborative was a fine example of slow design effectively putting the brakes on fashion week madness. As a curated demonstration of sustainable style that blends organic and fair-made with true textile artistry, the designers behind this timely exhibit really had something wholesome cooking in their lab of eco-friendly fashion.

Eko-Laborative’s NY Fashion Week exhibition at The Gabarron Foundation’s Carriage House featured some of the most innovative examples of eco-luxurious style that we have seen to date. The mannequin-clad models allowed visitors to take their time to inspect the earth-friendly details and theatrical spins on eco-chic glam.

Meiling Chen’s ‘Homage to Rapunzel’ dress, draped out of organic cotton and dyed with ‘Earthues’ dye, allowed viewers to become enraptured in the magic of handspun and braided hemp fiber. Melissa Kirgan’s ‘Deep Waters’ halter gown was equally mesmerizing in its organic gauze layering also dyed with Earthues and ‘cochineal’ combined with accessories and detailing of black hemp crochet, vintage buttons, recycled glass, and organic alpaca.

Ekovaruhuset’s founder Johanna Hofring created an organic linen, form-fitted dress embellished with pearl-like seeds from Kenya, while the Gibson gown was cleverly updated via Amy Mohlenhof’s organic hemp couture interpretation of a timeless classic dipped in natural dyes. Geometric play and hand-painted illustration also added a new dimension to sustainability and story telling, particularly in Tod Soderin’s ‘Stripes and Squares’ and Xing-Zhen Chung-Hilyard’s ‘High Wire Artist’.

One of my absolute favorites from the exhibition was Kaori’s Yamazaki’s ‘Tipi Dress’ fashioned out of organic hand dyed linen and perfectly draped as an eco-chic shelter for body and soul. All of the show’s haute couture experiments addressed both wearability and sustainability in an impressive display of the power of shared goodness and a belief that the right ingredients are perhaps the best way to craft real luxury and personal style.